Photoclubalpha

Truly a wonderful lens, Focus is slow, but the lens is very sharp even at full aperture. Bokeh is nice too. I bought mine as a short tele instead of the way too expensive Zeiss 85 mm. I was able to buy a new KM one from B&H for around $100 less than the then new Sony one. No regrets. (Well, that...

Sometimes I think we expect too much from "film era" full frame lenses. What we all tend to forget is the effective size of 35mm film is not 24 mm x 36 mm but something smaller due to the inevitable cropping that takes place in a slide mount or in the printer. This was often the excuse giv...

Too true. A very well stated article. I never trust a single review. So many times we see one review that says lens A is better than B, and others that say B is better than A. These days when almost all lens testing is "camera dependent" it makes life even harder. If Lens X is good on a Ca...

I have a Maxxum 4, and two 7s. While the 7s are wonderful, the 4 is very usable indeed. I am assuming the European 60 is the USA 70, so was probably intended to be "more" than a Maxxum 5. The way KM was economizing at the end, I would not be surprised if the AF module and Shutter were not ...

True, The basic physical mount mount stayed the same. Just as the Nikon F mount has stayed the same. Perhaps it is simply another example of semi-compatible mount evolution. :( Canon EF-S for example. Or the many semi-compatible incarnations the Nikon or Pentax K mounts have gone through. Being able...

David, What you say is so true about Sigma. I have been around long enough to see how Sigma came from "no-where" as an OEM for a whole range of lenses with other forgettable names on them. Remember the YS interchangeable mount? And that Sigma refused to license the Minolta AF mount and pir...

A very good description. The point I was trying to make (indirectly with respect to lens elements) was that the Xi series of varifocals had cheaper to manufacture lenses as one of the goals. Obviously one of the ways to cheapen lenses is to use less elements as well and a generally lower level of co...

David, I still have a few copies of the Minolta Mirror in the basement. Some of the finest black and white printed reproduction I have ever seen. You did like the 21mm MC Rokkor! (Much much nicer than the 20 f2.8 a teeny tiny thing that shows HARD vignetting in the corners even without a filter!) Alan

This may interest you:

http://www.popphoto.com/photonews/5652/ ... rters.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 4.5 mm and 10 mm will be available in Sony Mount

Alan

My comments on the 24mm Elmarit R, were based on the writings of Erwin Puts, as available *today* on the Leica Website in the document "Puts_Column_19-24_mm_Leica_R_Lenses_en.pdf", the document is dated 2003. Of interest, the 24mm Elmarit is not currently listed. In this document he states...

A clarification for Vidgamer: A parfocal lens, as is commonly found with zoom lenses, maintains focus as you zoom. Most zooms today use mechanical compensation, in which various cams, (really differently curved slots in some of the moving barrels), move the various different groups of lenses by diff...

I just went and re-read the relevant parts of the book. It seems the current leica R- mount 24 mm is the famous old Minolta MC 24 mm formula, but tweaked to make up for the fact that some of the glasses are no longer available. The 16mm Fisheye, as well as the 80-200, 75-200, 70-210 and first genera...

The current Leica 24mm R lens is a distant descendant of the old 9 element/7 group MC Rokkor, and thus does not bear any relation to anything from Sigma. Leica recomputed the lens after Minolta stopped making the elements for them as it used some Minolta specific glass. Sigma did produce the "c...

David, I am referring to the 28-85mm, not the 28-105 mm, which started out life as the 28-105 mm Xi, which had hybrid aspherics like the 35-70 f4.0. I am not sure when Minolta started using moulded aspherics. Certainly the first time they seemed to advertise the fact was with the either the 24-85 or...

Hi, Since I have been posting for a while I thought it would be good to tell you all something about myself. I grew up in South Africa, and moved to the USA in 2001. I started photographing in the mid 1970's with a SRT101. Over the years I expanded my collection to include 5 Manual focus Minolta bod...